YUM!

(Recipe improved by Ivars)

CAJUN STYLE SPICED PORK CHOPS

4 center cut bone-in pork chops (about 2-2 ½ pounds)
1 tablespoon paprika
2 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon each: onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne
¾ teaspoon each: white pepper, black pepper, dried thyme, oregano

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Rub chops with mixture. On medium-hot skillet on stove, add butter and grill chops over indirect heat for 10-12 minutes on changing sides until done. Pour remaining sauce from skillet on meat. Servings: 4.

Serve with apple sauce, rice, vegetables.

While it is certainly sad that Kentucky Derby winning horse "Barbaro" was euthanized on Monday after complications from a gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness horse race (something which I have problems with as well).

According to the Associated Press, a series of ailments — including laminitis in the left rear hoof, an abscess in the right rear hoof, as well as new laminitis in both front feet — proved too much for the horse. Barbaro battled in his ICU stall for eight months. The 4-year-old colt underwent several procedures and was fitted with fiberglass casts. He spent time in a sling to ease pressure on his legs, had pins inserted and was fitted at the end with an external brace. These were all extraordinary measures for a horse with such injuries.

Now I know there are too many people in the world who have way too much time and have a pretty screwed up view of things when they leave "cards and goodies" for the horse. You see this all the time, a kind of false sense of emotion seemingly brought on by such ridiculous shows as "Extreme Home Makeover" where ABC-TV finds a family with the most heart rending story and gets them to to humiliate themselves with big tears come to national TV, much to the delight of the show's sponsors like Sears.

Well-wishers young and old showed up at the New Bolton Center with cards, flowers, gifts, goodies and even religious medals for the champ, and thousands of e-mails poured into the hospital's Web site just for him.

"I just can't explain why everyone is so caught up in this horse," Roy Jackson, who owned the colt with his wife, Gretchen, has said time and again. "Everything is so negative now in the world, people love animals and I think they just happen to latch onto him."

Devoted fans even wrote Christmas carols for him, sent a wreath made of baby organic carrots and gave him a Christmas stocking.

Today I was unanimously elected along with a friend of mine to a citizen's oversight committee sponsored by the East County Democratic Club to scrutinize the takeover of a public performing arts facility by a group of far right Christian "evangiunethicals" in El Cajon, CA., as appointed by a cabal of "evangiunethicals" on the El Cajon City Council. This is going to be interesting.

California's official hag U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in an her constant attempt to accomodate her insatiable need to have her constant 15-seconds of fame today went on record saying that the Iraq policy "is a dangerous policy." So I guess the men who liberated Europe, went through such harrowing experiences as the Battle of the Bulge, were not a part of something dangerous? What has gotten us killed in Iraq is that we have been WAY too namby pamby as well as not considering the national character of the tyrants we're dealing with.

An infobabe climatologist at THe Weather Channel, Dr. Heidi Cullent, published an opinion piece on the subject of global warming claiming that after more than a century of research -- "based on healthy skepticism -- scientists have learned something very important about our planet." "It's warming up -- glaciers are melting, sea level is rising and the weather is changing. The primary explanation for this warming is the carbon dioxide released from -- among other things -- the burning of fossil fuels, she says." This has generated a lot of debate, and of course, I had to leave a comment on The Weather Channel's regarding her remarks, which included her suggestion that if an American Meteorological Society TV meteorologist agree with the theory of global warming that they be stripped of their certification. (Sounds like Hillary's failed health insurance plan where she mentioned jail time for doctors if they didn't follow certain provisions of her health plan which ultimately led to its demise.)


"First of all, The Weather Channel is not the great information resource it used to be. Happy talking meterologists and weather babes don't cut it. It has undermined the credibility of your channel. That's why you now have competition from NBC WeatherPlus and other outlets. And we're not talking here about the incessant number of commercials which interrupt your programming.

Second, the fact is that the world's weather is dynamic. That's the nature of the beast. Your stance and the vitriol which you have spouted to the American Society of Meterologists is typical of the Kool Aid left wingers (and I'm not so conservative myself) diatribe in order to try to get your way. Your politicians for public office have been so weak that you have to find some other way to try to influence policy. You seem to take the position (like so many) that if all people were to stop driving cars that the reputed problem of global warming would be reversed tomorrow. Nature doesn't work that way. Climeatologists have never "gotten it right" on the number or intensity of hurricanes hitting the SE coast. So instead of spouting reputed theories as fact, please go back to giving us more accurate weather reports. In the words of Mark Twain, "Everybody talks about the weather but does nothing to about it." "

This is why right-wing whacked out Christian Bible bangers will NEVER have credibility in American society.

I was in line at Trader Joe's earlier this evening and besides coffee I bought three bottles of wine. There were two PraiseTheLorders behind me...complaining to me that I was buying "Devil's Juice." What freakin' business did they have to criticize me for buying some wine? For heaven sakes, during communion Christians love to do their tribute to cannibalism by "eating the skin of Christ and drinking his blood." My problem is that so many Christians are "holier than thou" and love having the spectacle of being a "Christian," yet they drop the ball when it comes to actually acting out the words of their Holy Book. The cheerleader of the whacked out right-wing Christians, Newt Gingrich, reportedly had a nice little affair while his wife was dying in the hospital of cancer. Then got her to sign the divorce decree right before she passed away. WONDERFUL! I'll always remember a fairly interesting and good preacher, Dr. David Jeremiah, who reminds his flock regularly that some of the most evil people are behind the pulpit preaching.

Real Christians "do" their good works quietly and don't call attention to themselves. Their beliefs should be in their deeds, and not what they speak.

Please note that I'm now will make future reference to these psychologically ill people as "Praisethelorders."

Jesus, PLEASE protect us from your followers!

U.S. Senator Ted "Gimme A Bottle" Kennedy says Iraq is President Bush's "Viet Nam."

U.S. Senator Ted "Gimme a Bottle" Kennedy's Viet Nam is "Chappaquidick."

The second coming of my Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii)!

This would be a great addition to the website www.engrish.com

I was looking at purchasing a digital stereo microphone on Ebay when I ran across a seller in China. Everything was pretty normal in the auction offering, when I ran across this caveat at the bottom, literally written in "Engrish." (The rest of the spelling mistakes have been left intact for posterity.)

We suggest you categorically think about the total than onefold cost such as postage.In order to save the bilateral time, please do not have to discuss the transport expense and the insurance question with me.If you cann't accept my quoted price,also do not have to bid nor contact me for these questions, please bid for other.

The two TV commercials I was in last fall have now a home on the Internet....

Commercial 1

Commercial 2


http://www.ucan.org/drupal/node/34/play (Extreme Debates)

http://www.ucan.org/telenforcers/node/491/play (Ugly Baby)

My wonderful friends Serge and Hugh have published another one of their great songs....CHECK IT OUT!

A thought came across today:

Why is it that those who always want you to "Find and Accept Jesus" are really the ones who need to find Him?

Hypocrites.

"The he-man pose is as much of a pose as that of sissified refinement. We think of hypocrites as pretending to be doves. But they also pretend to be eagles and lions." --Brenda Ueland (she wrote that in the 1930s I think)

I love it...somehow I think there is almost a sense of justice with the news how President Clinton's national security Sandy Berger stole classified national security papers from the National Archives in his pants and socks. Hahahha....liberals keep smugly saying that President Bush "lied" about the intentions to war with Iraq. I guess Sandy Berger didn't "lie" about stealing the documents? I wonder if the new "Queen Lear" of the U.S. Congress, Nancy Pelosi, will bestow Sandy Berger with a National Honor of Freedom medal to him.

It is interesting thing though that the national press didn't pick up on this latest chapter in this shocking saga. My God...if Condi Rice would have done something like this the Dems would have her lynched, cooked and fried Southern Style.

Document-Theft Probe Is Criticized
Justice Dept., Archives Cited in Report

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 10, 2007; A04

The Justice Department and the National Archives improperly assured the Sept. 11 commission that its members had access to all relevant materials about the Clinton administration's terrorism policies, without knowing if original, uncopied documents had been removed from the archives by former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a Republican congressional report said yesterday.

The report, issued by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), accused both agencies of inadequately investigating the theft Berger admitted had occurred on two occasions in 2003. It quoted two Archives officials as saying that they had no way of knowing whether Berger took other documents from the files during two earlier visits.

Davis is the former chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He issued the report after Republican staff members conducted interviews with Archives and Justice Department officials and gained access to unredacted material from a probe by the National Archives inspector general.

His report includes new details of what Berger did, and how the Archives staff, the Justice Department and the FBI reacted to the discovery of missing documents. It depicts Berger as aggressively insisting during his visits to the Archives that he be left alone with the documents, giving him what he later admitted was a calculated opportunity to hide the papers in his clothing.

The report also depicts Berger as lying to Archives staff about thefts that an unnamed senior Archives official said had made her and her staff feel "almost physically ill." It said Berger knowingly made false statements to the media after word of the FBI probe surfaced and improperly allowed a spokesman, Joe Lockhart, to depict him as a victim in the affair.

Berger's attorney, Lanny Breuer, responded yesterday with a statement that Republicans had politicized and distorted "a matter that has been thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department for more than two years and effectively closed for more than a year. It is particularly troubling that they have chosen to attack not only Mr. Berger but also the dedicated professionals at the Department of Justice who handled this case."

Breuer added: "The principal allegations in this report are based on pure conjecture; not a single fact is offered to support them." He said Berger had cooperated with the Justice Department and had moved on.

The Justice Department said yesterday that it had no evidence Berger's actions had deprived the commission of any documents.

The report called the FBI and Justice Department's lack of interest in Berger's first two visits to the Archives, in May and June 2003, "disturbing" and "inexplicable," particularly in light of his eventual admission to having improperly removed classified notes he took during one of those visits. It said Berger was never given a polygraph test despite having agreed to it as part of his plea bargain with the Justice Department in 2005.

The report also provided a more vivid account of what an unnamed Archives staff member described as Berger's apparent attempt to take some material out in his pants, an allegation Berger has repeatedly denied. The staff member, one of only four Archives employees cleared to see all the documents that Berger came to review, wrote that "there was clearly something there more than his pants and socks."

The report said Berger took a special interest during his early visits in files from the office of former White House counterterrorism official Richard A. Clarke, which included uninventoried draft documents, memos, e-mail messages and handwritten notes. "Had Berger removed papers . . . it would be almost impossible for Archives staff to know," the report stated.

The report quoted a lawyer at the Archives, Jason R. Baron, as acknowledging that as a result "it is conceivable that the 9/11 commission may not have received" all the requested documents.

A spokeswoman for the Archives, Susan Cooper, said "at the time, the National Archives was confident that the 9/11 commission received all the materials. . . . You can't ever guarantee anything."

This is another bona fide reason for cigarettes to be banned from the face of the earth.

It is another bona fide reason why some people need to take chill pills.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A dispute over spare change may have inspired a woman to set a Walgreens store on fire and she did the deed using a lit cigarette. Store employees said their night turned from frustrating to scary, Monday. One moment, the customer was angry. The next, she was going up and down the aisles lighting merchandise on fire.

For workers at the Walgreens on South Orange Blossom Trail, Tuesday morning, it was back to business. But after what happened Monday night, business will never quite be the same. "You see flames all over the store, smoke all over the store, it was crazy," said store employee Harry Ambriose. The fire started around ten o'clock and it was no accident.

"I smelled smoke in the cooler and I was like, 'What's going on? What’s going on?' Ran out and I see big black smoke all over the store, black on the ceiling, black everywhere," Ambriose said. Employees said an angry customer was to blame. "She just came into the store and she got pissed off because the change was incorrect or something," Ambriose explained.

That's when the anger turned into action. The woman started going down the aisles, employees said, with a lit cigarette and started setting merchandise on fire. Fire crews swarmed the scene, knocking out the flames and snuffing out the smoke. But before they could get there, the woman ran out the door. For employees, it was like nothing they'd ever seen. "She just started the fire, arson basically, that's all it was, was arson," Ambriose said.

For fire investigators, it leaves them sorting through evidence and working to track down the woman responsible. A Walgreens spokesperson said store managers have been meeting with fire investigators all morning and looking at surveillance video of the incident.

Despite all the smoke, the fire did very little damage inside.

Copyright 2007 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

To AMB and AMB, and MAD...


If I Had Only Known
Sung by Reba McIntyre (Words by Jana Stanfield, Music by Craig Morris)


If I had only known
It was the last walk in the rain
I'd keep you out for hours in the storm
I would hold your hand
Like a lifeline to my heart
Underneath the thunder we'd be warm
If I had only known
It was our last walk in the rain

If I had only known
I'd never hear your voice again
I'd memorize each thing you ever said
And on those lonely nights
I could think of them once more
Keep your words alive inside my head
If I had only know
I'd never hear your voice again

You were the treasure in my hand
You were the one who always stood beside me
So unaware I foolishly believed
That you would always be there
But then there came a day
And I turned my head and you slipped away

If I had only known
It was my last night by your side
I'd pray a miracle would stop the dawn
And when you'd smile at me
I would look into your eyes
And make sure you knew my love
For you goes on and on
If I had only known
If I had only known
The love I would've shown
If I had only known